[SUBMISSION]: Allied Marines

Final Update (for real this time) is now submitted. I feel there's more then enough Marines to play about with, 17 out of the 24 I have lol. Don't want the file to be too big & the rest won't offer a huge amount of versatility compared to what's on now-- picked the best of the best

Hope you enjoy the new changes, Got my fingers crossed. Thanks again to everyone for your feedback, this has been the biggest project I've done-- I hope it pays off now. Enjoy

Throws a crash error at runtime:
The word "states" is at line 831, which seems to be what's causing the problem. There's also "states" at both 942 and 943, which if left unchecked, will cause a crash.

Also, it looks like the SSG Marine is missing his attack sound; I couldn't find it in the .WAD. You can probably get it from the SSG Zombie if you haven't already.

MagicWazard wrote: Throws a crash error at runtime:

Code:

Script error, "Allied Marines Pack.zip:allied marines.wad:DECORATE" line 832: Expected '{', got 'OBITUARY'.

The word "states" is at line 831, which seems to be what's causing the problem. There's also "states" at both 942 and 943, which if left unchecked, will cause a crash.

Also, it looks like the SSG Marine is missing his attack sound; I couldn't find it in the .WAD. You can probably get it from the SSG Zombie if you haven't already.

I'll take a look at these issues immediately, biggest project (and probably my best) want it to go up without problems as much everyone else (I hope)...



Found the problems down to last update to the Decorate-- copied SSG Zombie's attack sound.
BFG had 2 states, one in the wrong place , moved everything around on the Decorate making the new changes .
SSG had similar problem-- state added twice & accidentally deleted it's firing sound while changing sounds to OGG...

Too eager & excited to get this up-- made the biggest rookie mistake ever

Also adjusted Bombardier's (Seeker Marine) missie height.

Tested again, everything is now working for the 3 Marines.

I tried them all out, and there's some good stuff here. Now, for some more technical feedback. Yes, it's a lot, because, this is a big pack, and I'm real picky.

*The Seeker Marine's missile is missing its explosion sprites. Also, the "Info" needs to be updated with his new class name ("MarineAllyHSMissile").

*The SSG Marine can get off shots much faster than the player can. I realize that's a problem with the SSG Zombie too, but I'd slow down his rate-of-fire so he can't spam his attack.

*I don't feel like the damage on the Chaingunner and Minigunner's bullets needs to be increased (they're at 7 versus the standard 5); they already have a high rate-of-fire and a tight shot pattern. Conversely, the Shotgunner feels a little weak, since his shotgun fires both fewer and weaker pellets (6 pellets at 3 damage each, versus 7 at 5 for the player's shotgun).

*The Machinegunner's attack is much too accurate, in my opinion, in each of his fire modes. It's also weird that his fire mode dictates his bullet damage. His single shot does 5, as expected, but his rapid fire shots only deal 3, and his burst shots deal a whopping 7. If his bullets are coming from the same gun, they should deal the same damage--only the rate-of-fire and accuracy should vary.

*The Flamethrower Marine's attack is WAAAY overpowered. I'm assuming you copied it wholesale from the (UTNT) Flamethrower on the Repository? That thing is notoriously overpowered, but, paradoxically, is useless against bosses (Cyberdemon/Spider Mastermind or any monster with +NORADIUSDMG) because all the damage is explosion-based, and bosses are immune to explosion damage. I would reduce the damage significantly, and add +FORCERADIUSDMG, so that it's less overpowered against standard monsters and more useful against explosion-proof bosses.

*The BFG10K Marine doesn't have the pre-shot "charge" delay before he starts firing, although the sound effect is there. I realize he's got the most overpowered weapon of them all, so he's also going to be overpowered no matter what, but I'd suggest a delay of about 30 tics or so from the time he plays the "charge" sound to the time he actually fires, so that he's more congruent with the actual weapon.

*All the Marines have +NORADIUSDMG applied to them. Personally, I'd remove this, and give more of them the +AVOIDMELEE flag. It just looks strange to have a Marine walk right up to a monster and shoot it with a rocket or grenade at point-blank range and suffer no consequences as a result.

EDIT: Also, I'd suggest adding the flag +NOBLOCKMONST to each Marine. This way they can cross lines that normally block regular monsters.

Overall, though, you're doing real good with this! The time you've spent on this is definitely paying off; I think you're pretty close to the finish line now.

Brilliant feedback, thank you, will address these issues, especially the Super-Shotgun BFG-10K.

Flamethrower was copied from Flamer Zombie, which also does massive damage, but I will reduce this as the Marines have 200% health, so do take slightly longer to die. (Might save some allies lives too, ha ha ha) :derp:

Machinegun, was just to experiment with multiple firing states, designed for accuracy if you aren't using Plasma, Railgun or Sniper Marines, but will change the offset for it's "Burst" & "Continuous" fire, (to show closer the targets get, more he's panicking) damage will be set to deal the same for each shot.

Chaingunner & Minigun will be reset to 5% damage.

Both BFG marines, will get a delay check, BFG10K will definitely have his increased, might do the same to the Minigun, Flamethrower & Super-Shotgun Marine's too.

+AvoidMelee made so the Explosive (Rocket, Bombardier, Grenadier, BFG10K) & Sniper (Railgun & Sniper) Marines retreat, as they will damage themselves or (for realistic purposes & personal preference) can't get a clear shot.
Will add it to some of the others, mostly the weakest.
-Pistol
-Shotgun
-Machinegun

And to some others that might not benefit as much, but makes it harder on them to attack.
-Plasmagun
-BFG-9000
-Super-Shotgun
-Railgun (if I've forgotten)

A lot of Ally Marine Wads (Brutal Doom included), have fearless, gung-ho Marines, that charge in, take all the punishment & start killing everything for you and to me, it does spoil the game a bit & you'll be saving too much health & ammo.

Trying to put together something like:
-Heavy Weapons, (Chaingun, Plasmagun & Minigun included) & Explosives for the killing
-Weaker weapons & Snipers as your main backup
-Melee & Close range weapons (like the Super-Shotgun) with little or no regard for their safety

I've said to you before, I'd rather everyone give me constructive criticism & recommendations on what to do, instead of posting something that hopefully, might be added to the Repository but then turns out to be rubbish.

DBJ87 wrote: A lot of Ally Marine Wads (Brutal Doom included), have fearless, gung-ho Marines, that charge in, take all the punishment & start killing everything for you and to me, it does spoil the game a bit & you'll be saving too much health & ammo.

Yeah, that's my main fear, is that these guys could completely upstage the player if they're too powerful. I definitely want them powerful enough to be useful, but I don't want them doing all the work and hogging my kills!

DBJ87 wrote: +AvoidMelee made so the Explosive (Rocket, Bombardier, Grenadier, BFG10K) & Sniper (Railgun & Sniper) Marines retreat, as they will damage themselves or (for realistic purposes & personal preference) can't get a clear shot.

If the Explosive marines are meant to be able to damage themselves, then definitely remove the +NORADIUSDMG flag too, if you haven't already! Otherwise they won't suffer harm from their own explosions. Like I said, it's kind of funny to watch a Rocket marine walk straight up to an Imp and literally shove the rocket down its throat, but that doesn't make much sense from a gameplay standpoint.

(for realistic purposes & personal preference) can't get a clear shot.

What I meant by that was, if a sniper can't get a clear shot, he'd have to retreat. But will remove the Radius Damage immunity.

Also going to disable Auto-aiming against the Marines (or at least make it optional), to reduce the chances of friendly fire from the player.
And adding -COUNTKILL as when a marine dies, it adds towards the total percentage of killed Monsters and these guys aren't your enemies.

There isn't anything else I feel needs to be changed, damage is balanced-- any further changes to that is now really down to the user.
As far as I'm concerned this is finally finished, will be looking into other Alliance WADs and tweaking my own version, but won't be adding any of those changes to this, until a final decision is made on this & as long as any further doesn't over-balance anything...

While waiting for news and more feedback of this, working on more "Advanced" & "Immersive" Allies that can swap between 4 weapons (Melee, Primary, Secondary/backup & a "Special" choice) ammo for all weapons and Perks or Traits such as special attacks, specific stat changes that benefit & give penalties, smarter tracking, dodging attacks during combat & even healing themselves to balance them out. If anyone's interested, I will upload, more relevant to everyone versions of them when I've finished all 12 Marines. Made about 5 all ready, These will be a bit more overpowering, but still won't wipe out Barons & Bosses in 2-3 seconds, can take down bosses if there is about 2 or 3 together but random weapon & skills, doesn't guarantee they will all survive every big fight...

(Back to this)
Working on the new Marines and another submitted Monster has given me the idea to give all the Gun using Marines a Knife as a Melee weapon (or just punch them, but going from standard Physique to "Hulk" for about 2 seconds frankly, looks a bit stupid), so they can defend themselves better at close range, handy idea for weaklings such as Zombies, Imps & Lost Souls and they can go down fighting if cornered by bigger enemies... Also might add a Distance check for Rocket, Grenadier, Bombardier, BFG-10K, Railgun & Sniper Marines... Good ideas or should it be left as it is?

DBJ87 wrote: (Back to this)
Working on the new Marines and another submitted Monster has given me the idea to give all the Gun using Marines a Knife as a Melee weapon (or just punch them, but going from standard Physique to "Hulk" for about 2 seconds frankly, looks a bit stupid), so they can defend themselves better at close range, handy idea for weaklings such as Zombies, Imps & Lost Souls and they can go down fighting if cornered by bigger enemies... Also might add a Distance check for Rocket, Grenadier, Bombardier, BFG-10K, Railgun & Sniper Marines... Good ideas or should it be left as it is?

I wouldn't worry about giving the gun-toting marines a melee attack, especially since they don't have to worry about ammo consumption (which is the main reason one generally uses a melee attack in Doom). What did you mean by "Distance check", though? If I recollect, they already have +AVOIDMELEE so they'll try to keep their distance from baddies.

What did you mean by "Distance check", though?

Following up the idea of giving them a limit as to how close they can be before failing to attack & backing up to get a clearer shot.
Example: anything closer than 360 map units (maybe 512 for explosives) so guys using explosives, reduce the chance of firing at point-blank range, killing themselves and for Snipers, just a add a bit of realism.

Same idea on what I've got in place for Duke Nukem with the RPG.

I'll leave the knife idea for the Allied Marines aside for now. Thank you for your feedback